writing romance – Nomad Authors Blog

There was a time when I never would have considered reading MM romances. Not that I had anything against them, I just never thought of them. Then hubby went out of town for a business meeting and I went along, just to go. We had dinner with one of his colleagues and he asked what I did. I told him I wrote romance—erotic romance. It had only been recently that I’d admitted that to people. Was I ever surprised when he said his sister also wrote erotic romance—of the MM variety. He put us in touch with each other and after exchanging a few emails. she sent me one of the works she’d just finished. Oh. My. God. It was fabulous!!!

Like my erotic romances, she placed the emphasis on romance and not especially on the sex. And her sexy sequences were explicit but without seeming raunchy—which can happen whether writing MM or MF sex scenes.

After dipping my toe into the “other” side, so to speak, I read other MM romances—even chose them over other books when I reviewed for Romance Junkies, if they sounded like a good story.

I don’t write MM romances, however. I think we have to use our strengths, and MM romance isn’t mine. However, I enjoy a good, strong romance, and if it’s single gender, then I’m okay with it. What do you think?

Read the next blog in the blog hop by going here.

Dee

Burning Bridges by Anne Krist
One Woman Only
Only a Good Man Will Do
Naval Maneuvers

While I have dipped my toe into the future and the past with my writing, I feel most comfortable writing in present, contemporary time. Maybe it’s because I’m lazy? I don’t know. But writing historical fiction takes a fair amount of research if your books come out sounding true. And there’s a lot to keep up with if you build future worlds. (Same is true if you create series in contemporary time, I’ve discovered!) But because of our trucking years, we traveled over a lot of the country and I feel pretty happy drawing on our experiences to write about all kinds of locations.

And it is important to write truthfully about locations—unless you make up your city or town. I know someone who couldn’t get beyond the first few pages of Fifty Shades of Gray because she said it was so obvious the author knew nothing about Seattle! A reader recently pointed out that I had a horse eating straw instead of hay. Oops! Those kinds of mistakes are always on the author, and whatever time period you write, it’s vital to get details correct.

The biggest thing to remember about writing, no matter the time period, is that we are telling a story. Make it a good one. Show, don’t tell, Engage the reader’s emotions. Have a great beginning, middle, and end. Mind your craft (grammar, punctuation, POV, etc.). Pay attention to details. If you do these things, you will be read (which is what we all want) regardless of the time period you choose.